Create a cloud instance (3/5)

Before you create an instance you must be sure you have created a key pair and a network. If you have a key pair and a network you need to know a little about selecting the right storage before you launch a new instance. You can configure a new ephemeral instance or a persistent instance. To know the differences between the two, please you to read this information first: How to choose the right OpenStack Storage. Once you've decided upon which storage you want to use, you can create your instance. In this guide we will help you through the process of creating an ephemeral or a persistent instance.

Creating a Persistent Instance

For creating your persistent instance you first need to create a bootable volume.

Log on to the OpenStack dashboard, choose your project and click Compute followed by Volumes.

Select Create Volume

Specify your new volume name and optionally a description.

Type: Select Default or SSD.

Size: the minimum for a linux bootable volume is 10GB and for a Windows bootable volume is 30GB.

Select Image from the Volume Source drop down list.

Use image as a source: Choose the image you like to use (more information on uploading images will follow).

Availability Zone:Any Availability Zone will do for most use cases.

If you do select a specific Availability Zone you will need to make sure that your bootable volume remains in the same availability zone as the instance you’re going to create with the bootable volume.

Click on Create Volume.

Now that you created your bootable volume, you can create your Persistent Instance.

Log on to the OpenStack dashboard, choose your project and click Compute followed by Instances.

Now select Launch Instance in the top right corner.

Select the Availability Zone for your instance.

Specify a Instance Name.

Select a Flavor from the drop down box.

Default Instance Count is one. Increase this number if you need to start multiple instances.

Instance Boot Source: For a Persistent Instance select Boot from volume from the drop down list.

Volume: Select the volume you created earlier.

Click on Access & Security

Select the Keypair that you created earlier and select a Security Group.

You can add more than one Key Pair.

Click on Networking

Select one or more of your Available Networks and add it to your Selected Instances.

Optional: Add the following on the Post-Creation tab in the Customization Script field